Washington – Senior military officials decided to launch the current U.S.-British military campaign to seize Marjah in large part to influence domestic U.S. opinion on the war in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported Monday.

Gideon Levy in Haaretz tells America to stop sucking up to Israel. He leaves out the root cause. You canâ€™t just tell the Americans to make better policy without dealing with the Israel lobby and, barring wider outrage among Americans, issues of Jewish identity.

Israel targeted â€œthe people of Gaza as a wholeâ€ in the three-week military operation which is estimated to have killed more than 1,300 Palestinians at the beginning of this year, according to a UN-commissioned report.

ISLAMABAD â€“ Pakistanâ€™s army launched airstrikes and ferried in tanks and artillery as it confirmed Tuesday that it was preparing a major offensive against insurgents in al-Qaida and the Talibanâ€™s safest haven along the Afghan border.